Fake gang. Posers. Trust-fund kids. Tyler Hazelwood has heard all the names.
He owns Lords of Gastown Motorcycle Supply Company along with Nik Markovina, a store that sells handmade/repurposed biker and street clothing in addition to motorcycle parts and accessories. To use bike films as a point of reference, Lords of Gastown lean more towards Easy Rider than the crotch-rocket ridden Torque, which means lots of hair, tattoos and teeth-rattling engines.
However, this is a city where acceptance of diversity is sometimes limited to carefully orchestrated advertisement photographs for condo developments. Do something that some don鈥檛 like and the doors open to judgment and hostility.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 the one thing that a lot of people like to say 鈥� we have a lot of haters 鈥� and a lot of them like to say we鈥檙e posers, like we just picked up this lifestyle because it was cool, because of Sons of Anarchy, and we just bought our first motorcycles,鈥� said Hazelwood during the Lords鈥� show and shine in the Waldorf Hotel parking lot Saturday afternoon. 鈥淎ll of the things they say is funny because there鈥檚 no research into any of it.鈥�
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If a naysayer were to ask, Hazelwood would say he grew up in Langley, a 麻豆传媒映画suburb that gets credibility points in motor culture as it鈥檚 home to one of the oldest lowrider clubs in Canada (Strong Car Club), many car shows and cruises, as well as being a hotbed for illegal street racing in the early 2000s.
Hazelwood would also add that he used to ride Japanese sport bikes before trading for a Harley. 鈥淲hy do you need to do 300?鈥� he said of the sport bike鈥檚 outrageous top-end speed. So, the pair of 2014 Harley Dynas and the 1986 FXR, when it鈥檚 running, aren鈥檛 his first rodeo horses.
The Waldorf parking lot barely contained the third annual Strong & Free show. Motorcycles were crammed next to classic cars and trucks while lowrider and vintage bicycles lined up alongside lowrider cars. It鈥檚 a good thing a bigger lot is on the to-do list 鈥� once the smoke cleared from the burnouts in the parking lot, the folks at the Waldorf reportedly told Lords they weren鈥檛 welcome back.
Power in numbers is also the reason for the existence of the Lords of Gastown, which started as a joke design on a homemade T-shirt with a logo inspired by skateboarding鈥檚 Lords of Dogtown cross. Hazelwood and Markovina, who met at Lyric School of Acting when they were 21 (Markovina is still involved in the film industry as an actor/producer), spent enough time in bars to earn the Lords of Gastown moniker, which, Hazelwood pointed out, was never meant to be taken seriously.
鈥淲e made the T-shirts as a joke to wear into bars, as a reaction to play off their joke,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e were wearing the shirts and people wanted to buy them and then it was making 20, and then it was making 40, and then it was making 100 and then it was maybe we should make a hoodie.鈥�
Hazelwood鈥檚 girlfriend, Jill Kacic, a Blanche Macdonald fashion graduate who is now Lords鈥� head seamstress, remembered screen-printing the shirts in the alley behind her Railtown place.
鈥淭hen I made a jacket a month for the first year, made 30 jackets the second year, and then made 30 jackets every month,鈥� said Kacic, whose bedroom became a mini-factory with five sewing machines to accommodate the demand.
As wild as Saturday鈥檚 show was with its burn-outs, wheelies, and bikini models arriving at the contest stage via Harley bike shuttle, Hazelwood acknowledged there was another reason for the event aside from bringing a community of bikers together for a day.
Proceeds went to the Crohn鈥檚 and Colitis Foundation of Canada, one of the causes Hazelwood is passionate about as he has the disease.
鈥淐reativity is probably what saved my life when it comes to Crohn鈥檚 disease and it gave me a way to manage stress and channel some energy I was suppressing,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 was stuck in a hospital bed for almost two years, I could die from that any day so standing on my motorcycle at high speeds while somebody videotapes me is something I want to do in my life. I don鈥檛 condone it鈥� I don鈥檛 even like seeing it when my friends do it. I know it鈥檚 stupid鈥� But it鈥檚 living, and I wasn鈥檛 living, I was trying to survive for so long, for a good portion of my adult life.鈥�
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